Teaching English vocabulary via digital games to 3rd level Saudi male students: issues and attitudes

The integration of technology into educational contexts typically presents its own challenges. The integration of technology into conservative and culturally-sensitive educational contexts presents its own specific and additional challenges. This is certainly the case in Saudi Arabia. Today, most English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners are highly responsive to digital games and games in general have been part of their lives since they were children beginning with building blocks and playing hide and go seek until they mature and start to play a lot of digital games. Since this is the age of technology and our students are now in the digital era, EFL learners have become more emerged in playing digital games. Inevitably, this phenomenon cannot be ignored and the research area of Digital Game-Based Language Learning (DGBLL) in classrooms has emerged. In this exploratory study this research will investigate the issues that face the students in the college of Languages and Translation in a Saudi Arabian University and their attitudes towards implementing DGBLL in their classrooms. In order to gather relevant data, a mixed-method approach was used: involving pre- and post-tests of learners' vocabulary acquisition and the introduction and use of digital games that were carefully selected by the researcher; as well as surveys and group interviews. This research has revealed a number of issues which include: cultural sensitivities; personal motivations and attitudes, and the appropriate choice of games. This thesis concludes with recommendations and solutions concerning the implementation of a DGBLL method in a culturally-sensitive educational context.